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Pegasus
Battlestar Pegasus (BS-62) is a Mercury-class battlestar, and one of the two battlestars that survived the assault on the colonies. It emerged less damaged than Galactica and it is at least two times bigger than it. It survived the colonies' destruction due to maintenance being performed on it at the time of the invasion resulting in a lack of connection to the compromised defense network. The ship escaped the destruction of the shipyards by executing a random jump into empty space. Upon surviving the destruction of the fleet, Pegasus' commander Admiral Cain, decided to commence a strike-and-retreat assault on the Cylon fleet to keep up crew morale. Several days after the attack, Pegasus encountered a small, helpless civilian fleet; the Admiral made the controversial decision to strip the fleet of essential parts to make repairs. It joined Galactica's colonial fleet several months after the assault, leading to a power-battle between Cain and Adama for the position of Admiral. The battlestar aided the colonial fleet for a number of months until it was sacrificed by Commander Lee Adama as a diversion in order for Galactica to pick up inhabitants of New Caprica. History Prior to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, Pegasus was a prize assignment in the Colonial Fleet. Frank Bruno at the Caprica Transfer Station tells Kendra Shaw that "half the officers on this base would kill to get posted to that ship". It is apparently important enough for the Cylons as a military target to infiltrate, as Gina Inviere (a Number Six copy) assumes the role of network administrator on the ship (Razor). William Adama mentions the reputation of Cain and her ship to President Laura Roslin ("Pegasus", extended version). Weeks before the Fall Pegasus docked at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards, where she was to undergo a three-month systems overhaul. All of the ship’s networked computers were taken off-line in preparation of the refit, leaving the heavily automated ship partially inoperative but also less vulnerable to electronic attacks. When the Cylons launch a surprise assault against the shipyard, they are only able to shut down Pegasus's weapons grid and navigational computer. The attack works in extreme favor of the Cylons, and they overtake the installation in a matter of minutes. However, the multiple nuclear weapons that they detonate create an EMP that blinds their DRADIS, leaving them temporarily unaware of Colonial movement in the immediate area. Admiral Cain uses this to her advantage and orders her ship to randomly jump without a coordinates check. After their escape, Cain leads Pegasus on a series of hit-and-run attacks against Cylon assets. One such attack is against what is thought to be a lightly-defended communications relay but turns out to be a staging area with fifteen squadrons of Raiders. When Cain's long-time executive officer Jurgen Belzen refuses her order to launch all of the ships' Vipers, calling it suicide, she summarily executes him in CIC and promotes Jack Fisk to replace him. During the battle, the Cylon agent Gina allows a party of Centurions to breach the ship's defenses and board, resulting in heavy casualties. When Gina is exposed as a Cylon, she kills several Marines before she is subdued. Once imprisoned, Admiral Cain directs her crew to use extreme methods, including gang-rape and other physical and emotional abuse, to break the prisoner. Some time later, Pegasus realizes that a Cylon fleet it is tracking is not jumping randomly but is following a path along systems with natural resources. When it jumps to scout the Cylons' next projected position, Pegasus encounters the Fleet led by Galactica; it turns out the Cylons are jumping to systems Galactica has passed through or explored. Cain assumes overall command of the Fleet and begins transferring supplies and personnel between the two battlestars, including Captain Lee Adama and Lieutenant Kara Thrace. Cain's indifference to the needs of the civilian ships prompts President Laura Roslin to raise her concerns with Commander William Adama. When Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Karl Agathon inadvertently kill Cain's chief "Cylon interrogator" Lieutenant Alastair Thorne, Admiral Cain has no reservations sentencing them to death.3 Commander Adama demands their return, precipitating an armed standoff between the two ships (Pegasus). The two later set aside their animosity and join forces to successfully destroy a Cylon Resurrection Ship. During the immediate celebrations that follow, however, Cain is ambushed in her quarters by Gina, who shoots her and escapes from the battlestar undetected (Resurrection Ship, Part II). Jack Fisk succeeds Cain as commander of Pegasus, who in turn is murdered after running afoul of the Fleet's illicit black market (Black Market). Command then falls briefly to chief engineer-turned-commander Barry Garner, who dies saving the ship during the Battle of the Binary Star System. Pegasus's final commander is Lee Adama (The Captain's Hand), with his wife Anastasia Dualla later serving as his XO (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II). Pegasus encounters its own small fleet of 15 civilian ships, found about a week after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Rather than defend them as Galactica did its own at Ragnar Anchorage, Admiral Cain uses them as a source of spare parts, deciding that Pegasus's military needs take priority over theirs. Cain also reviews their passenger lists and draws up a list of selectees, people such as aeronautical engineer Peter Laird who would be of value, to forcibly draft into her crew. However, some are with their families and refuse to leave them. Facing an uprising aboard the civilian transport Scylla that spreads to the other ships, Admiral Cain orders Colonel Fisk to shoot the families of any who resist. When the angry crowd gets violent, Lieutenant Kendra Shaw and her Marines carry out the order, killing 10 people and cowing the rest into submission. The civilian ships are stripped of useful items, including their weapons and FTL drives, and are left to their fate as Pegasus resumes her campaign of hit-and-run attacks against the Cylons ("Razor", "Resurrection Ship, Part I"). New Caprica Following the founding of New Caprica, Pegasus is assigned to the Orbital Defense Force that protects the planet. During this time, Commander Lee Adama keeps an emergency supply of medication aboard for the pilots, despite the fact that their crew is severely depleted due to colonization of the planet. One year after the founding the colony, the Cylons return in force. Unable to defend the planet, Pegasus and the remaining ships orbiting the planet jump away (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II). Four months later, Pegasus and Galactica plan a rescue mission to recover the people left on the planet (Occupation). While the plans initially called for the involvement of Pegasus in the recovery, Admiral Adama decides that the remnants of the Fleet, the last free people of humanity, should not be left unprotected if things went awry. Adama takes Galactica in the rescue effort without Pegasus, ordering his son to stay with the Fleet at a rendezvous point to await their return ("Precipice", "Exodus, Part I"). Despite Adama's orders, Pegasus leaves her fighters to protect the remains of the Fleet and returns to New Caprica to participate in the rescue. Pegasus jumps into the fight and finds Galactica under fire from four Cylon basestars. Pegasus destroys one of the baseships with her forward batteries and attracts the attention of the others while Galactica repairs its FTL drive and prepares to jump away. Pegasus reels from the onslaught of missiles from the remaining Cylon basestars. It becomes clear to Admiral Adama that Pegasus's trip was one-way. Following Galactica's jump, Commander Adama sets his battlestar's batteries on auto-fire and orders the crew to abandon ship, pausing just long enough to give his dying command a quiet thanks. As the evacuation Raptors jump away, Pegasus, mortally damaged and now completely unmanned, collides with a basestar, destroying it. As Pegasus explodes, the remains of her starboard flight pod collides with another basestar, destroying it as well (Exodus, Part II). Weapons The gun batteries on the Pegasus are arranged very differently from Galactica's. Whereas the Galactica's type battlestars' twenty-four large guns are clustered along the dorsal and ventral sides, with secondary batteries concentrated along the flight pods, the guns of the Pegasus are found all over the ship (The Captain's Hand). The greatest concentration of large turrets are found along the side of the ship, within the valley created by the upper and lower halves of the hull, including the flight pods. Four are mounted on the underside of the upper hull on the ship's bow, below which sits four non-turreted large guns; these form the main forward batteries. Six turrets are mounted on each underside of the alligator head, grouped in pairs. There are also three turrets on the side of each flight pod along two more turrets are mounted on the front and back of each flight pod. This amounts to a total of thirty-four main gun batteries, ten more than the Galactica type Battlestar. In addition, the turreted guns of the Mercury class have a higher rate of fire than Galactica's turreted guns when operating in flak mode, as evidenced by the skirmish with the Cylon War-era Raiders in Razor. Spacecraft The physical appearance of the Pegasus is different than that of the original battlestar. The "neck" section is smaller, and the Pegasus is equipped with eight sublight engine pods, compared the older class's six. These are also more "boxy" in appearance than those of the original. Unlike Galactica type battlestars, the Pegasus has a full armor "skin." Each flight pod consists of two stacked landing bays with adjoined decks and hangars. Combined with computer assisted landing, this gives the class a faster rate of Viper recovery than previous battlestars. Category:Colonial Fleet starships